SOUTH KOREA
Hot nights break record
A streak of hot tropical nights broke a century-old weather record, official data released yesterday showed, as the peninsula bakes in a prolonged heat wave. Overnight temperatures in Seoul sizzled above 25°C for 22 consecutive days last month, officials said, marking the longest such streak for the month since modern weather records began in October 1907. The capital was also on track to record its hottest July night in history on Wednesday, with the lowest temperature of the day reaching 29.3°C.
Photo: Reuters
MYANMAR
Junta ends state of emergency
The junta yesterday ended its state of emergency, ramping up plans for a December election that opposition groups pledged to boycott and monitors said would be used to consolidate the military’s power. The military declared a state of emergency in February 2021 as it deposed the civilian government of democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi, sparking a many-sided civil war that has claimed thousands of lives. Opposition groups including ex-lawmakers ousted in the coup have pledged to snub the poll, which a UN expert in June dismissed as “a fraud” designed to legitimize the military’s continuing rule.
UNITED STATES
City official set on fire
A city councilman in Danville, Virginia, was seriously injured on Wednesday when a man stormed into his office at a local magazine, doused him in gasoline and set him on fire — an attack that authorities said was rooted in a personal dispute, not politics. Lee Vogler, 38, who has served on the Danville City Council for more than a decade, was taken by medical helicopter to a burn unit in North Carolina after the attack. Police said the assailant, 29-year-old Shotsie Michael Buck Hayes, forced his way into Vogler’s office at Showcase Magazine, confronted him, then chased him outside and set him ablaze. Hayes was arrested at the scene on charges of attempted first-degree murder and aggravated malicious wounding.
PAKISTAN
Climber confirmed dead
Two-time Olympic biathlon gold medalist Laura Dahlmeier of Germany was confirmed dead aged 31 on Wednesday after being hit by falling rocks on a mountain. The dangerous nature of the site made rescue efforts “impossible,” her management company reported in a statement that confirmed her death. “This is an enormous shock. Laura will always remain in my heart,” Dahlmeier’s friend and rival, Czech champion Gabriela Soukalova, wrote on social media. The accident happened around midday on Monday at an altitude of 5,700m on Laila Peak in the Karakoram range, a statement from Dahlmeier’s team said. Her climbing partner was able to sound the alarm after reaching safety, but no one was able to reach her due to conditions that made a helicopter rescue impossible, a local official said.
FRANCE
Michael Jackson sock sold
A single glittery sock that late pop superstar Michael Jackson wore during a concert in France in the 1990s sold for more than US$8,000 on Wednesday, an auctioneer said. A technician found the used sock discarded near Jackson’s dressing room after the concert in the southern city of Nimes in July 1997, auctioneer Aurore Illy said. Decades later, the off-white item of clothing is covered in stains, and the rhinestones adorning it have yellowed with age, in a picture posted online. “It really is an exceptional object — even a cult one for Michael Jackson fans,” Illy said.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has fired his national police chief, who gained attention for leading the separate arrests of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte on orders of the International Criminal Court and televangelist Apollo Carreon Quiboloy, who is on the FBI’s most-wanted list for alleged child sex trafficking. Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin did not cite a reason for the removal of General Nicolas Torre as head of the 232,000-member national police force, a position he was appointed to by Marcos in May and which he would have held until 2027. He was replaced by another senior police general, Jose
STILL AFLOAT: Satellite images show that a Chinese ship damaged in a collision earlier this month was under repair on Hainan, but Beijing has not commented on the incident Australia, Canada and the Philippines on Wednesday deployed three warships and aircraft for drills against simulated aerial threats off a disputed South China Sea shoal where Chinese forces have used risky maneuvers to try to drive away Manila’s aircraft and ships. The Philippine military said the naval drills east of Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島) were concluded safely, and it did not mention any encounter with China’s coast guard, navy or suspected militia ships, which have been closely guarding the uninhabited fishing atoll off northwestern Philippines for years. Chinese officials did not immediately issue any comment on the naval drills, but they
POWER CONFLICT: The US president threatened to deploy National Guards in Baltimore. US media reports said he is also planning to station troops in Chicago US President Donald Trump on Sunday threatened to deploy National Guard troops to yet another Democratic stronghold, the Maryland city of Baltimore, as he seeks to expand his crackdown on crime and immigration. The Republican’s latest online rant about an “out of control, crime-ridden” city comes as Democratic state leaders — including Maryland Governor Wes Moore — line up to berate Trump on a high-profile political stage. Trump this month deployed the National Guard to the streets of Washington, in a widely criticized show of force the president said amounts to a federal takeover of US capital policing. The Guard began carrying
Ukrainian drone attacks overnight on several Russian power and energy facilities forced capacity reduction at the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant and set a fuel export terminal in Ust-Luga on fire, Russian officials said yesterday. A drone attack on the Kursk nuclear plant, not far from the border with Ukraine, damaged an auxiliary transformer and led to 50 percent reduction in the operating capacity at unit three of the plant, the plant’s press service said. There were no injuries and a fire sparked by the attack was promptly extinguished, the plant said. Radiation levels at the site and in the surrounding
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